Depositors offer bakers benefits from accuracy and portion control to
sanitation and labor savings.
Before purchasing a depositor, bakers should examine the latest in depositor design and technology.
“A well designed bakery depositor should offer the baker precise portion control and fast scaling of cake batters, pie fillings and other bakery mixes,” says Stewart Macpherson, vice president, sales and marketing, Unifiller Systems Inc. “The machine should be simple to use, quick to change over from one product to the next and easy to clean,” Macpherson adds. He lists portion control as the most important factor today, in light of increasing ingredient prices and high transportation costs. Accurately portioning product can help bakers save on costs down the line.
“Consistency of products also is highly important if we are to bring customers back time and time again,” he adds.
Weight accuracy, sanitation, versatility, labor savings and product identity also are crucial in a quality depositor. “Weight accuracy is key to producing a consistent product with consistent costs,” says John McIsaac, vice president, strategic business development, Reiser Inc., Canton, Mass. Labor savings allow the processor to realize quicker payback and the ability to increase production without adding payroll. In addition, consumers want to see the chunks of chocolate, or product identity rather than a homogenized mass, he notes.
Versatility is a huge factor because fillers and depositors must run different products with minimal changeover time to satisfy the need to differentiate product in the marketplace. Versatility in the design also is important, and a variety of custom-attachments and decorating heads can help customize solutions for a baker's precise application needs.
When it comes to sanitation, an easy-to-clean machine can make all the difference. “A bakery depositor is going to be operated, cleaned and often maintained by the baker himself, so the fewer components the machine has means less parts to clean, damage or lose,” Macpherson says.
Accuracy always is a top priority for bakers. Unifiller offers a fully adjustable air operated deposit speed DIAL that can be adjusted in less than one turn to a pre-set point, allowing the baker to select the deposit speed precisely. “Without this feature the baker has to eyeball the correct deposit speed, which can be tricky in some applications,” Macpherson says.
Today, bakers have more control over their depositors thanks to technological advancements that allow for greater automation. Such technology is helping bakers reduce costs, by using programmable logic controllers (PLC), operator interfaces, plant-wide interfaces and servo motors to prevent costly mistakes and reduce labor costs.
Unifiller plans to launch new technology early this summer in order to offer more automated depositing systems where computer controls and servo driven pistons will be self adjusted to maintain accuracy automatically. All information will be controlled and accessed via color touch screens on the on-board PLC.
With many versatile depositors on the market, bakers can easily find a quality match for their bakeries' needs.
Following are a sample of depositors and the unique features they are offering.
Rademaker makes depositors for all depositing needs from thick pastes and smears to fillings with large particulates. Rademaker's consistent and accurate depositing machines are used for decorating cakes with rosettes, placing jams and cheese on Danish or depositing fillings into containers for filling croissants or pies. All depositors are designed for quick changeover and ease of sanitation and maintenance.
Rademaker USA
330 650 2345
www.rademaker.com
The Hinds-Bock 10P-01 high-speed, mini-products depositor provides large production in a small space. Design features allow this 10-piston machine to run up to 1,000 mini muffins, mini cupcakes and mini snack cakes per minute. The 10P-01 can be disassembled in minutes without tools for rapid sanitizing and changeover for maximum up time. Clean, accurate deposits make this an extremely efficient machine.
Hinds-Bock Corp.
877 292 5715
www.hinds-bock.com
The Peerless Group has released the Next Generation Fedco depositor, which features a patent pending scalable design (width and length of machine dependent upon pan size and number of deposit heads) and uses Coriolis Mass Flow Meters along with custom programmed PLC's to control deposit. This new design is CIP, meets BISSC standards and has few moving parts. Instead of a hopper above the deposit heads it uses a bypass manifold/circulation to maintain constant pressure and a continuous ready-to-deposit mode. A motor-driven automatic formula setup version is available.
The Peerless Group
937 492 4158
www.thepeerlessgroup.us
Grote's Volumetric depositor is ideal for depositing, injecting and decorating with liquid and semi-liquid products. Using various combinations of hopper, nozzle and decorating heads, the depositor accurately and consistently deposits a wide range of food products. It is available in single and multi-head configurations and can be manually controlled or integrated into an automatic production line. The volumetric depositor is pneumatically operated and designed to withstand wash down in a food production environment. The simple design allows it to be disassembled without tools for easy cleaning.
Grote Co.
614 868 8414
www.grotecompany.com
Unifiller's Pro 1000i is designed to work over a conveyor line with pin-point accuracy and consistency. As with all of Unifiller depositors, the Pro 1000i has few parts to clean and a user-friendly design. This depositor is capable of depositing batters for cheesecakes, muffins and cakes, delicate mousse fillings, fruit pie fillings, heavy pastes, whipped cream and more.
Unifiller Systems Inc.
604 940 2233
www.unifiller.com
The Vemag depositor from Reiser is the perfect solution for depositing and filling applications that require exact-weight portions. The versatile Vemag uses modular attachments to produce a variety of products with minimal changeover time. The Vemag gently portions all types of bread and cookie dough, cake and muffin batter, pie fillings, cream cheese, frosting, and more. It also is ideal for extruding sheets of fats or dough with consistent thickness and width.
Reiser
781 821 1290
www.reiser.com